Teaching in Nalanda Ancient University Part - 3.

                                             Buddha Shakyamuni or the Bodhisattva Maitreya

 
(Buddha Bronze Circa 8th-12th Century AD Nalanda Bihar Bronze Gallery Indian Museum Kolkata )

There were 2 types of courses in Nalanda. 

1. Basic Education and 2. Advance Education.

Only after completing the basic Education one was eligible for higher Education. 

Minimum age for admission in basic education was 6 years and maximum 8 years. 

The name of the book for basic education is ‘Siddhirastu’. 

There were 49 letters of alphabet in it. 

2^nd book which was taught after 8 years of age was “Panini’s grammar”. 

In this book there is 1,000 sutras. 

It takes 8 to 10 months to memories the whole book. After that “Dhatu” or Verb and “Kasikavriti” was taught.

 

In higher Education all students at Nalanda studied Mahayana as well as the texts of the18 (eighteen) Hinayana sects of Buddhism. 

In addition to these, they studied other subjects such as the Vedas Hetuvidyā (Logic), Shabdavidya (Grammar and Philology), Chikitsavidya (Medicine), the works on magic (the Atharvaveda and Sankhya.

The subjects taught at Nalanda Visva Mahavihara or University covered every field of learning. 

That's why it attracted pupils and scholars from near and far with some traveling all the way from Tibet, China, Korea, Japan, Indonesia, Central Asia, Turkey,  Persia etc.

  

Nalanda was a residential school. 

It had dormitories for students. 

In its heyday, it is claimed to have accommodated over 10,000 students and 2,000 teachers. 

Chinese pilgrims estimated the number of students to have been between 3,000 and 5,000.

 

The subjects taught at Nalanda covered every field of learning, and it attracted pupils and scholars from Korea, Japan, China, Tibet etc.

Traditional Tibetan and other sources mention the existence of a great library at Nalanda named Dharmaganja (Piety Mart).

which comprised 3 (three) large multi-storied buildings – 

1.  Ratnasagara (Ocean of Jewels), 

2.  The Ratnodadhi (Sea of Jewels), and 

3.  The Ratnaranjaka (Jewel-adorned). 

Ratnodadhi was 9 (nine) storey’s high and housed the most sacred manuscripts including the Prajnyaparamita Sutra and Guhyasamaja.

3. The library not only collected religious manuscripts but also had texts on such subjects as grammar,Logic, Literature, Astrology, Astronomy, and Medicine.

The Nalanda library must have had a classification scheme which was possibly based on a text classification scheme developed by the Sanskrit linguist, Panini. 

Whole Buddhist texts were most likely divided into 3 (three) classes based on the Tripitaka's 3 (three )main divisions:

The Vinaya Pitaka, Sutra Pitaka, and Abhidamakama Pitaka.     

                                     

In the biography of Xuanzang, Hwui-Li states that all the students of Nalanda studied the Great Vehicle (Mahayana) as well as the works of the eighteen (Hinayana) sects of Buddhism.                         

Xuanzang (also known as Huansang) wrote frequent debates and discussions necessitated competence in Logic. 

A student at the Mahavihara had to be well-versed in the systems of Logic associated with all the different schools of thought of the time as he was expected to defend Buddhist systems against the others. 

Other subjects believed to have been taught at Nalanda include law, astronomy, and city-planning.
 

All students at Nalanda studied Mahayana as well as the texts of the 18 (eighteen) Hinayana sects of Buddhism. Their curriculum also included other subjects such as the Vedas, logic, Sanskrit grammar, medicine and Sankhaya.